Digital pathology involves the use of computers to assist pathologists in grading tissue specimens. For example, a tissue sample for breast carcinoma diagnosis typically takes an expert five minutes or more to grade. Several studies have demonstrated low agreement among pathologists' grading of the same case, questioning the objectivity of their diagnosis. A successful system may assist the pathologist in diagnosis, helping to achieve more reproducible results at lower cost.
The identification of signet ring cells is important for diagnosis of signet ring cell carcinoma, which is a particularly deadly form of gastric cancer, because there are no easily detectable markers besides the signet ring cells. Because the signet ring cells may occur in small number, they may be easily missed by human pathologists.
Accordingly, an apparatus/method is needed for automatically detecting signet ring cells in of a tissue sample.